We get asked pretty often, “How can I get traffic to my site?” or “How can I get to the top pages on Google?”, the answer is a little complicated. SEO can be an intricate, intimidating process. There are a lot of factors to consider, what is considered best practice to boost your ranking is constantly changing. We’ll admit it, it’s hard to navigate on your own, you could spend weeks trying to determine what to do and how to meet your marketing goals through SEO.
Outdoor Business Network takes a lot of the elbow work out of the tedious process of learning how-to optimize your site for more traffic, providing our customers with helpful expertise to help you sort out the ever-evolving world of SEO. We have experts on staff that know SEO and our Cloud Commerce software, the combination of which can lead to meeting your marketing goals. Our software comes with several valuable SEO features built in, ready for you to optimize. There are also several resources for you to utilize, whether you want to DIY or have a talented expert guide you through the process, or even somewhere in between.
First off, let's highlight the basics. There are some core essential concepts of SEO that you need to be familiar with in order to have the most success with optimization. This guide should give you a better understanding of search and what is taken into consideration when search engines are ranking your site. Let’s explore these basics:
Research: Do Your Homework!
You’re already doing this just by reading this article! Before you dive into improving your site SEO, you need to start with research. This is an often overlooked factor in SEO success, targeting the wrong keywords can knock you down in ranking, so it’s important to do your homework if you want to have higher traffic and conversion rate.
Keyword Research
Keywords are the words and phrases in your content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. So basically, these are words or phrases that your customers would type into the search box to find your site. When your website is optimized properly, it’s like your site and google speak the same language, they get along well. So your keyword research should be focused on developing a list of keywords that your target audience will be using. How are people looking for your products or services? What specific words can distinguish you from other competitors?
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Finding Keywords: Consider relevancy. Go for words that are highly relevant to your brand and your products or services. Think local, where are you located, think about what people in your geographic location would search to find you.
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If you get stuck try to use Google’s free AdWords Keyword tool to help you come up with some relevant keywords. Look for keywords with high local monthly searches that are relevant to your business.
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Be careful not to choose words that are too broad or competitive, this will lead to a high bounce rate and low conversion rate. Simply put, people will come to your site, click through and not find what they want and leave. For example: Instead of going for a keyword like “Guns” it might be more effective to go for a specific niche Gun or service that you offer, like “Cerekote” or “Small Arms Ammunition”
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Where you can put keywords once you find them? Great Question, with cloud commerce software you can use these keywords to fill your tags in several places:
A few basic SEO first steps for your new XLEcommerce store:
1. After products are loaded use the "Fill Tags" feature to do a dynamic SEO for all products.
-> Navigate to "Information Manager" -> "Fill Tags"
-> Ensure English is selected for the Language variable.
-> Check the Yes radio button for the Fill products meta description with Products Description.
-> Set the Character Limit to less than or equal to 160 characters (this is the max that google will show)
-> Under Categories, Manufacturers, and Products, check the Fill all tags radio buttons
-> Click the Update Button*
Note: This process will take a considerable amount of time for large stores. It may time out. That is OK, let it run, and if it times out. Change the radio buttons under Categories, Manufacturers, and Products to "Fill only empty tags". You can do this several times to fill large stores.
2. Now it is time to dynamically optmize your pages.
-> Navigate to "Information Manager" -> "Text Control"
-> Enter a Default Title (this is usually just your company name) max 8 words
-> Enter in a 160 character or less description
-> Optional: you may enter keywords or leave this area blank. There is evidence that google no longer uses keywords. Some search engines still do. We suggest 0-8 keywords max, ensuring not to spam (use only very relevant keywords to your page).
-> Scroll down to find find the "index" variable fields
-> Enter a title for the index page (home page). This should be no more than 8 words long, include your company name and your most important keywords.
-> Enter a description, max 160 characters. This should include the keywords in your company name, as well as other relevant information. Make sure it is smoothly readable by a person (make is sound nice) as this is the description shown in google search.
-> Optional: Enter keywords. Google no longer uses this field, they do recognize spam. Do not put any keywords in here that are not reflected in your title, description, or on your page. Max 8 words seperated by commas.
-> At this time we won't cover the additional pages fields, as they can all be dynamically filled with your default description. You may choose to optimize further by filling additional fields. When you do, make sure to test the results and "view source" to verify the meta tags on the pages you are working on are what you wish.
-> Now it is time to check some boxes to dynamically optimze your products and categories.
-> For the index page: leave all boxes unchecked
-> For the product_info page: check the boxes to the right of HTCA and HTPA
-> For the shop page: check the boxes to the right of HTAA, HTDA, and HTKA
-> Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Update button
Contratulations! You now have a good SEO starting point for your store. Now, don't expect because you did this that you will have immediate first page results for highly competitive keywords. The big dogs in the fight are spending hundreds of thousands if not millions on marketing their websites.
Of course there is more you can do both on the website itself through: merchandising, product description writing, category page optimization, template code optimization, conversion optmization, content writing, landing pages, internal links, and more. Off the website the major factors include: article submission, PR, social media, link building, paid advertising, events, mailers, word of mouth, conventional marketing, brand building, and more which all contributes to your overall SEO/SEM profile. Much of this is covered in other tutorials. If you need pro SEO/SEM or marketing/branding consultation, contact us, we can help.
Here are a few more things to play with on site.
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Tags (Information Manager > Text Control) (Information Manager > Page Control) What you can do here is fill out your Header Tags to include those precious keywords that you have identified.
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Default Title: This is your store name
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Default Description: This is the description that will appear when someone searches for you via search engines. Keep this description under
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Default Keyword(s): This is where you put in your main keywords that you have identified.
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Meta Tag Information (Categories/Products > Pick a Category > Pick a Product) You will see when you select “Edit” on a particular product and then choose “Product Info” the Meta Tag Information is contained on this page. This areas are all places to submit those identified keywords.
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Product Keywords:
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Product Title Tag:
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Product Description Tag:
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Product Keywords Tag:
